What scientific things catch my infant's interest?

*Shadows
*Light
*Pictures (perception, depth, light, colors)
*Looking through a window (perception, depth, light, colors)
*The baby in the mirror above her swing (reflections)

It's amazing how quickly babies grow and develop. According to my "What is your baby doing this week?" email, at 7 weeks, she should be seeing more colors and in 3D. We've definitely noticed her focusing on objects at a distance. She definitely enjoys contrast. Blinds are some of her favorite things to stare at, and if I raise the blinds, she gets so excited to look out the window and explore the world with her new, sweet eyes. The best thing we can do is safely facilitate her curious interests (ie. don't let her stare into the sun b/c she likes light) and discuss what she sees.

How early is too early to start science?

Miss Baby J is now 6 weeks old. Time is flying by, when it's not 2 am.

We're starting to get into a routine now that our special helpers/visitors have all gone home, which means that it's just me and Miss Baby J during the day (when J's at preschool). Research tells us that we should talk to our babies starting as young as possible, but what should we talk about? Science!

She is calmer when she hears my voice, so I do love talking to her. Here are some things that I've talked about with Miss Baby J:

• Kiss a body part and talk about the body part (anatomy) - my personal favorite.
• Count fingers, toes, and other body parts (math).
• Colors (physics).
• The weather (physics/thermodynamics).
• Sing songs, clap rhythms (music).
• Identify noises we hear (physics/fluid dynamics).
• How anything we come across that catches her attention works (various science categories).
• Facts about different animals while pointing out the animal in J's and her stuffed animals (biology).
• Trees and other plants (biology).

What do you discuss with your infant?

Do plants grow without leaves?

We recently had a rodent eat all of the leaves off of our cucumber plants:

My husband had high hopes that they would recover. I, on the other hand, was not so optimistic and asked that we buy some more and replant. (my hypotheses: the plants wouldn't survive)

We replanted, but we left the chewed plants for an experiment to see what would happen. We also had a cherry tomato plant that had its leaves only partially eaten. We let that one be without replanting.

The result?

A month later both chewed cucumber plants were completely dead.

Why?

Leaves play an essential role in the process of photosynthesis - the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. I like to think of leaves as mini solar panels, using sunlight to make energy. Without leaves the plant has very little to create the energy needed for the plants to grow bigger.

What about the half-chewed tomato plant?

The tomato plant was only partially eaten by the rodent, meaning that the rodent left some parts of the leaves. The plant has recovered and is flourishing.

What experiment can you do at home?

You don't need a garden or bigger/expensive plants. Beans grow relatively fast from seeds. Plant 3 different beans in jars/cups. When they are big enough to have leaves, break all the leaves completely off of one, break the leaves half way off in one, and leave one to grow normally. Compare how they grow after that.

Personal lessons learned:

We made a crop cage for our garden before planting the new bunch of cucumbers. The new plants have not been targeted. We might blog about the crop cage in the future, but it needs a few tweaks first.

New to the Nerdy Family

We welcomed Miss Baby J two weeks ago. She is a very sweet little girl. J is enjoying his new baby sister and has self-imposed big brother duties of reading to her (he taught himself how to read over the last few months to prepare for this role) and picking out what outfits to wear.

I'm hoping to return to the blogging world in the next week or two. I hope you are having an amazing April.

Dancing Raisins - a Magic School Bus Experiment

This Dancing Raisins experiment came from our Magic School Bus Science Club kit on solids, liquids, and gases. It involves raisins, tap water, and soda water. Concepts to discuss are density (what sinks, what floats), forces, and buoyancy.

We started out placing raisins in tap water. They did nothing. Note that I left the sound on this video. J wanted to take over and conduct his own sink/float experiment.

We didn't have soda water, but the kit came with an alkaseltzer tablet. We tried it. It was supposed to be for another experiment in the packet that we ended up observing/conducting on our own. It wasn't the best. The raisins bounced up and down a few times, but mainly it smelled as the gases were released from the tablet. J really didn't like the smell. Yay, science.

We put the experiment on hold while we walked down the street for dinner. The restaurant happened to have soda water available, so we took a cup of it home. We weren't 100% sure the carbonation would survive the 10 minute walk, but we repeated the experiment using soda water. It worked! This is what happened, note I left sound on for J's commentary:

So what happens is the gases in the soda water get stuck in the crevices of the raisins and give the raisins enough air (forces/buoyancy) to float to the top of the water. Once at the top, some bubbles pop and go into the air, and the raisin sinks back down to the bottom. Pretty neat, huh?

Notes: 
I paid for the Magic School Bus Science Club Kits and have no affiliation with them.

I'm taking a brief break from the blog to focus on my family. I'm sure we'll have tons of scientific discussions. I'll try to post some insights to our Facebook Page or Twitter as they come and catch up on the blog once I come up for air.